PREVIEW: Blue Jackets at Stars

BLUE JACKETS (9-6-2) at DALLAS STARS (9-6-2)
8:30 p.m. ET, Monday (Fox Sports Ohio,
Fox Sports app
, 97.1 The Fan).
There is skating and then there's really skating.
For second-year Blue Jackets center Pierre-Luc Dubois it's a constant battle within himself to get the really part right.
Hockey players and coaches often talk of "moving their feet." It's a term that seems weird to outsiders. After all, hockey isn't played with jet packs and turbo thrusts to get up and down the ice.
"Obviously, you're moving your feet when you skate but it's the explosiveness, accelerating to a hole, when you see an opening you realize it," Dubois said.

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When Dubois got off to slow start this season, he figured out that he wasn't playing at full speed.
"It's always been a weakness of mine," he said. "Even when I was a kid my dad always told me, when I was 10 or 11, 'Move your feet.' Especially me, if I move my feet without the puck, if I'm awake, I'm sharp, then when I get the puck I can go."
He's been on the go a lot lately. He had a goal and an assist in the 5-4 shootout loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday (he also converted in the shootout) and has four points (three goals, one assist) in the past four games.
Dubois' seven goals share the team lead with Josh Anderson, Anthony Duclair and Cam Atkinson. Dubois also has five assists. His 12 points are tied for second with Atkinson to linemate Artemi Panarin's 18 (five goals, 13 assists).
For Dubois, it all comes back to keeping his feet active.
"It's a process. For me it's starts in warm-ups," Dubois said. "If I'm moving my feet in warm-ups, I feel I'll move them in the game."
An example of how that paid off was when he scored the tying goal with 32 seconds left in regulation at the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 4.
He skated his way into the zone to the edge of the crease and was able pound in rebound of a Seth Jones shot that deflected of Brandon Dubinsky.
"Even on the rush when (defenseman Zach Werenski) gave me the puck in our end, I had one of their forwards coming at me," Dubois said. "If I wasn't moving my feet, you know, I saw a little opening and I had to jump into it."
Dubois, who last season set the Blue Jackets' record for goals (20) and points (48) by a rookie, had a goal and two assists the first seven games this season as he drew more notice as the center on the top line.
"I don't know if he felt it would be a lot bit easier for him at the beginning of the season, but every team is hard," Atkinson said. "Every team knows who he is and plays hard against him and we play against their top lines."
Dubois notices a difference in how opponents approach him.
"Maybe now when I go on the ice they know who I am a little bit more," he said. "It's not so much, 'Who's this kid?' but 'We know who we're going against tonight.' It's a fun feeling."
He needs to remind himself to enjoy the game.
"At the beginning of the season I thought I was almost too concentrated, where last year where it was successful for me was when I was just having fun," he said. "I've always been an instinct kind of guy where I have good habits and a detail-oriented game naturally where I don't have to think about it. This year I've wanted to do too much. I wanted to do too many good things. Now I'm skating, and the rest will follow."

Line dancing in Big D
There could be some lineup changes, certainly with what has become the fourth line, for the game at Dallas.
Coach John Tortorella was not happy with center Alex Wennberg, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Duclair, who played only 5:40, just 40 seconds in the third period, against the Rangers. Afterward, Tortorella criticized the trio for their lack of commitment to checking.
He's been harping on them for weeks to get to the gritty areas and take care of their defensive responsibilities.
"When it comes to competing that's something that should be easy to control," Bjorkstrand said Tuesday. "You always have confidence level and so on that might be more difficult to handle sometimes but compete level should be easier to control because you can go out there and win 50/50 battles, be strong on the puck.
"If you have to go to the fourth line and play seven, eight, nine minutes, whatever it is, on those shifts you've got to find a way to prove you should be playing more."
The Blue Jackets did not practice Sunday ahead of the trip to Dallas, so any line changes will have to wait.
At least Tortorella doesn't have to worry about the second line of Nick Foligno, center Boone Jenner and Anderson.
"You know they can bring some offense but they can check also," the coach said. "We've been playing them against some of the top lines since we put them together. They like the assignments."

Seeing stars
The Blue Jackets and Stars will complete the season series Monday. The Blue Jackets won 4-1 in Columbus on Tuesday. Dallas has also already played its two games vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Quotable
"We didn't win but at the same time we can build off some things. A lot of guys played well, a lot of guys played with energy. The team overall played with pretty good energy, pretty good pace. We'll build on it. I guess we'll take the point; would have liked to have gotten both." -- Defenseman Seth Jones after the shootout loss to the Rangers
Blue Jackets projected lineup
Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Cam Atkinson
Nick Foligno -- Boone Jenner -- Josh Anderson
Markus Hannikainen -- Alexander Wennberg -- Riley Nash
Lukas Sedlak -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Ryan Murray -- Seth Jones
Markus Nutivaara -- David Savard
Zach Werenski -- Scott Harrington
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched: D Adam Clendening, D Dean Kukan, F Anthony Duclair
Injured: None